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"I'll remain in the same seat by 2027," the Prime Minister stated, noting that if the discussion was successful, he might welcome the interviewer into his official residence for another conversation in the coming year.

There is rarely ever time off for those in the top job. In the hour before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and attempting to understand what on earth had transpired in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently targeted and seized its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

By the time our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than typical, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the new year begins, the Prime Minister seems to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just a little relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

This appeared to have put him in better spirits than at the sluggish tail end of 2025, a dreadful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his political fate are set to improve?

Party Concerns

The grisly reality for the prime minister is that many of his party members think he's ineffective at his job. A faction of them would rather gamble and oust him in 2026.

However Sir Keir was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he insisted he'd be "assessed at the next election", maintaining nobody would strip his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 may be for Labour to switch leader.

"We are in the struggle of our times and I plan to guide the party," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are about who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to concede it, No 10 will be evaluated by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would resign, even if a his MPs ran against him for the job, if those elections prove catastrophic for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He tried to explain his low poll ratings by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to improve. He aimed to persuade me, and the public, that 2026 would be different.

The economic situation would strengthen in the face of rising unemployment, he claimed, when plans the administration put in place during their first rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He committed to empty asylum hotels ahead of the current target date of 2029, but he did not put a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the qualification that it wasn't a foregone conclusion, that a peace agreement in Ukraine felt a greater possibility now than at any point since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now discussing how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big point is that this year the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than I've seen from him for a some time – more relaxed, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering calls from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with increased political direction, more urgency, more pace and more urgency, his points were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, does he need a new narrative?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for an extended period, gets everything its own way.

Sir Keir's problems are not only because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, including in the recent past.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he was sorry for saying he was "delighted" to welcome back the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – came to light.

Sir Keir blamed "the system" for not catching what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing obvious political risks as the year gets going. His friendship with the US president acquires a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Having interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over his career, the idea he would be content with these events seems far-fetched.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He told me he was a "longtime advocate of international law" but we "simply do not have the full picture at the moment".

Critics called for him to denounce it prior to the interview. And the administration is expected to face further scrutiny to give an definitive view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has long been growing tension in the Labour ranks to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

Sir Keir disputes he's doing that, but his new firmer plan to align more closely with the single market – the vast economic European trading zone – will probably elicit howls that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to reverse the decisions that followed Brexit.

A decision to integrate into more of the single market will satisfy many on his side of the party, but it is easy fodder for Reform and the Conservatives to